Andrew Lavoott Bluestone has been an attorney for 40 years, with a career that spans criminal prosecution, civil litigation and appellate litigation. Mr. Bluestone became an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County in 1978, entered private practice in 1984 and in 1989 opened his private law office and took his first legal malpractice case.
Since 1989, Bluestone has become a leader in the New York Plaintiff’s Legal Malpractice bar, handling a wide array of plaintiff’s legal malpractice cases arising from catastrophic personal injury, contracts, patents, commercial litigation, securities, matrimonial and custody issues, medical malpractice, insurance, product liability, real estate, landlord-tenant, foreclosures and has defended attorneys in a limited number of legal malpractice cases.
Bluestone also took an academic role in field, publishing the New York Attorney Malpractice Report from 2002-2004. He started the “New York Attorney Malpractice Blog” in 2004, where he has published more than 4500 entries.
Mr. Bluestone has written 38 scholarly peer-reviewed articles concerning legal malpractice, many in the Outside Counsel column of the New York Law Journal. He has appeared as an Expert witness in multiple legal malpractice litigations.
Mr. Bluestone is an adjunct professor of law at St. John’s University College of Law, teaching Legal Malpractice. Mr. Bluestone has argued legal malpractice cases in the Second Circuit, in the New York State Court of Appeals, each of the four New York Appellate Divisions, in all four of the U.S. District Courts of New York and in Supreme Courts all over the state. He has also been admitted pro haec vice in the states of Connecticut, New Jersey and Florida and was formally admitted to the US District Court of Connecticut and to its Bankruptcy Court all for legal malpractice matters. He has been retained by U.S. Trustees in legal malpractice cases from Bankruptcy Courts, and has represented municipalities, insurance companies, hedge funds, communications companies and international manufacturing firms. Mr. Bluestone regularly lectures in CLEs on legal malpractice.
Based upon his professional experience Bluestone was named a Diplomate and was Board Certified by the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys in 2008 in Legal Malpractice. He remains Board Certified. He was admitted to The Best Lawyers in America from 2012-2019. He has been featured in Who’s Who in Law since 1993.
In the last years, Mr. Bluestone has been featured for two particularly noteworthy legal malpractice cases. The first was a settlement of an $11.9 million dollar default legal malpractice case of Yeo v. Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman which was reported in the NYLJ on August 15, 2016. Most recently, Mr. Bluestone obtained a rare plaintiff’s verdict in a legal malpractice case on behalf of the City of White Plains v. Joseph Maria, reported in the NYLJ on February 14, 2017. It was the sole legal malpractice jury verdict in the State of New York for 2017.
Bluestone has been at the forefront of the development of legal malpractice principles and has contributed case law decisions, writing and lecturing which have been recognized by his peers. He is regularly mentioned in academic writing, and his past cases are often cited in current legal malpractice decisions. He is recognized for his ample writings on Judiciary Law § 487, a 850 year old statute deriving from England which relates to attorney deceit.
Real estate broker is asked to find a buyer. Broker presents a buyer, but no deal ensues. Broker papers the transaction and sits back. Later transaction goes through and Broker eventually seeks commission. Sellers attorney is sues. Is he liable?
Land Man Realty, Inc. v Faraone 2012 NY Slip Op 08218 Decided on November 29…
Plaintiff sues attorneys for a divorce situation in which he alleges they represented both him and his wife, and lost about $1 million for him in the proceedings. His complaint, in Verdelis v Landsman ; 2011 NY Slip Op 32196(U); Sup Ct, NY County; Docket Number: 651767/10; Judge: Judith J. Gische survives both a CPLR…
In DUSHYANT KURUWA and MONICA ARGUELLES, Plaintiffs, -v.- MILTON L. MEYERS, Defendant.;09 Civ. 4412 (GWG);UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK ;2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122466; October 21, 2011, we a most unusual case of successful pro-se litigants. Even more so, the Court granted punitive damages agaisnt the attorney. In…
Plaintiff’s husband was the victim of a really serious act of medical malpractice and hired defendant Buttafuoco to handle the case. he was successful, and settled the case for $ 3.7 million. What followed is a morass of claims, counterclaims and accusations.
Husband needed a guardian, and Wife was appointed. In Urias v Daniel P. …
Reading the beginning of this case immediately brought us back to a Conflicts class at law school. We were to to analyze an auto accident in which plaintiff resided in state A and the accident took place in state B and the insurer was from state C…well you get the picture. Here in Cambridge Integrated Servs. …
In Simoni v Costigan 2012 NY Slip Op 07882 Decided on November 20, 2012 Appellate Division, First Department plaintiff tries to get the ongoing personal injury action consolidated with a legal malpractice action. Plaintiff fails. We cannot tell why, from the decision, and the underlying Supreme Court decision is not available to us. In general…
In legal malpractice litigation there is always the "prior" or "defendant" attorney and usually a "successor" attorney. What discovery may entail between them, and what portion of the successor’s file may be disclosed? Ingram Yuzek Gainen Carroll & Bertolotti, LLP v
Coden 2012 NY Slip Op 32741(U) October 23, 2012 Supreme Court, New York…
Regular practitioners get little enough guidance in the appellate process, and reasons for dismissals and other outcomes are not always apparent or even stated. Here, in two cases a pro-se plaintiff has her case dismissed, but with almost no guidance. In Cascardo v Snitow Kanfer Holtzer & Millus, LLP 2012 NY Slip Op 07615 …
Attorneys skip from firm to firm, and take cases with them. Some cases hold that the former law firm remains on the hook even though the attorney left. Rosenbaum v Sheresky Aronson Mayefsky & Sloan, LLP 2012 NY Slip Op 07651 Decided on November 14, 2012 Appellate Division, Second Department does not. While…
Pryor Cashman is no stranger to legal malpractice cases. In today’s NYLJBrendan Pierson reports on one such case. The lawsuit, Fitzsimmons v. Pryor Cashman, 651360/10, was filed in August 2010.
"The plaintiffs are the trustees of three benefit funds for the Construction Workers Local 147, better known as the Sandhogs. The plaintiffs allege Pryor Cashman’s malpractice…
